[1] all documents relating to any complaint made against DC Parker (Cornwall police) regarding homophobia
[2] all documents relating to any internal investigation of DC Parker by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary

I ask this as I sincerely believe a formal complaint I have previously made & the interconnected nature of several other Cornwall police homophobic incidents, attitudes & practises have been covered up by the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

I write in connection with your request for information which was received
by this office on May 12, 2009. I understand you are requesting the
following information:

[1] all documents relating to any complaint made against DC Parker
(Cornwall police) regarding homophobia [2] all documents relating
to any internal investigation of DC Parker by Devon and Cornwall
Constabulary

Your request will be considered in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. You should expect to be sent a response within the
statutory limit of 20 working days, subject to the provisions of the Act.

Should you have any further inquiries concerning this matter, please
contact me quoting my reference number as above.

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews. My understanding is that by LAW a response was due by no later than the 9th of June 2009.

Due to my personal experience of multiple Cornwall police homophobic attitudes & practises I have no reason to doubt that this contempt & prejudice is in fact widespread throughout the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary, reflective in contempt shown in not completing this FOI request within the law.

I write in connection with your request for information which was received
by this office on May 11, 2009. I understand you are requesting the
following information:

[1] all documents relating to any complaint made against DC Parker
(Cornwall police) regarding homophobia [2] all documents relating to any
internal investigation of DC Parker by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary

I regret to inform you that your request will not be sent to you within
the 20 working day deadline as laid out under the Act. I hope to respond
to your request for information very soon.

I apologise for this delay, and do hope this does not cause any
significant inconvenience.

Should you have any further inquiries concerning this matter, please
contact me quoting my reference number as above.

However, the IPCC has now,( we believe thanks to the FOI questions through this website) finally this month referred the catalogue of complaints to Devon & Cornwall Constabulary Professional Standards Unit

…but for Devon & Cornwall Constabulary to investigate themselves?

Despite referral for investigation, that is not to say we do not want ALL our FOI questions answered. WE DO, as we FIRMLY believe there has been considerable malicious & widespread homophobic motivated dishonesty, misconduct, deception & corruption within Devon & Cornwall Constabulary over many years in the way in which, not only the above complaint, but the numerous other complaints interconnected with the above, have repeatedly & deliberately been ignored by both Devon & Cornwall police & the IPCC.

(The above is by no means a complete or exhaustive list of Cornwall police officers of whom there are further outstanding complaints)

Anything less than full investigation & interconnected nature & impact & effect upon gay persons due to the attitudes & practises AGAINST gay persons by the police concerned, would simply be yet further evidence of reluctance of Devon & Cornwall Constabulary to actually conduct themselves with (1) Honesty, (2) Integrity, (3) Impartiality & (4) Transparency of conduct. Four theoretical benchmarks of the police code of conduct still regularly ignored by Cornwall police attitudes & practises when dealing with gay persons.

I write in connection with your request for information which was received
by this office on May 11, 2009. I understand you are requesting the
following information:

[1] all documents relating to any complaint made against DC Parker
(Cornwall police) regarding homophobia
[2] all documents relating to any internal investigation of DC Parker by
Devon and Cornwall Constabulary

Your request for information will not be processed.

I have decided that your request is vexatious and in accordance with
section 14(1) the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Devon and Cornwall
Constabulary is not obliged to comply with a request for information that
is vexatious.

The reasons that I have concluded that your request is vexatious is
because it is one in a series of requests from you on complaints against
police officers. Your requests on this subject are causing a considerable
burden to this organisation in terms of distraction and I believe that
they are manifestly unreasonable.

You have the right to ask us to review this decision. If you wish us to
review this decision please set out your grounds for review in writing and
send it to the Force Information Manager, Citizen Focus Portfolio, Devon &
Cornwall Constabulary, Middlemoor, Exeter, EX2 7HQ, Devon.

Further information about your rights is also available from the
Information Commissioner at Commissioner's Officer, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 01625 545700.

I refer to you email dated 9th June 2009 submitting a compliant that Devon
& Cornwall Constabulary had failed to meet the requirements of Section
10(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, in respect of the above
request, in that it failed to provide a response to your request within
the stipulated 20 working days.

I accept that the complaint is justified and apologise for the late
response. By way of mitigation I would explain that within a constrained
resource budget, the FOI Unit of the Constabulary is subject to a workload
of FOI requests that is increasing in number and complexity year on year.
In fact in the period that you submitted this request, as part of a
sequence of eight separate requests submitted in a single day and thirteen
separate requests submitted over a span of 20 days, the force was actually
dealing with its highest workload of request since the Freedom of
Information Act was enacted in January 2005. Notwithstanding these facts,
we did fail to respond in the designated time, and for this once again I
apologise.

I now understand that in terms of the finalisation of this request
specific, you have been notified that it has been designated as vexatious
and repeated request as per Section 14 (1) of the of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and that no response will be provided. You do, of
course have a right to appeal the decision.

John Ellis
Head of Information Management
Devon & Cornwall Constabulary

This complaint has now been referred by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to the Devon & Cornwall Professional? Standards Unit.

The FOI within Devon & Cornwall Constabulary have demonstrated their willingness to conspire? & corroborate with trying to withhold information about police abuses, first by declining a enquiry about homophobic incidents using the excuse it exceeded the 18 hour limitation, then when individual enquiries were made it is deemed as ‘vexatious’.

There is in my experience a considerable genuine and serious problem of willingness to corruptly cover up abuses carried out by police officers of the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary.

There is a gulf of difference between that which is stated by Devon & Cornwall Constabulary regarding commitment to equality & diversity & the reality of abuses, violations & homophobic attitudes & practises STILL carried out by named & identifiable Cornwall police officers from Camborne & Helston police stations.

I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 6th July 2009 requesting that
Devon and Cornwall Constabulary review its decision related to the above
request.

My understanding is that the issues you have raised are linked to the
application of exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

It is the Police Service's policy to deal with complaints and appeals in a
timely manner. Thus, the target time for responding to appeals and
complaints should be as soon as practicable, and in any case within two
months. The file has now been submitted for a review of the decision to be
conducted by an independent reviewer, in accordance with the Force's
review procedure. Every effort will be made to provide a prompt response.
If, for any reason the review cannot be completed by 1st September 2009, I
will contact you.

If you wish to discuss this matter prior to the Force's response please
contact me.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission have written to me (10/07/09) as Devon & Cornwall Constabulary Professional Standards Unit have failed to record a decision within the 14 days allowed regarding the catalogue of previously reported complaints which have not been investigated, accumulative abuses, failure of duty of care, homophobic attitudes & practices as carried out by named and/or identifiable police officers primarily from Camborne & Helston police stations from 2004 up until-2009, on going.

This has become the commonplace benchmark of Devon & Cornwall’s contempt towards gay persons making complaint of homophobic conduct of numerous Cornwall police officers. This police delaying tactic only further compounds the original police abuse. Police seem to rely upon gay complaintents becoming intimidated or frustrated by their police administrative delays into giving up pursuing legitimate grievances against police. That has been our experience of Devon & Cornwall police contempt since 2004-to-2009, up until the current & present police action.

This has been compounded by the Devon & Cornwall FOI requests regarding complaints about police homophobia, first being denied to Lord Mc Dowell as being too great, taking in excess of 18hours. Then when individual request were made, this was deemed as vexatious and refused (although all the individual requests are interconnected due to the homophobic targeted gay victim/s of Cornwall police abuses, etc).

There is a genuine and serious problem operative as normal acceptable practise within the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary in its attitudes & practises in further victimising gay persons and no accountability or responsibility taken within the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary for failures to even follow laid down procedure.

An IPCC appeal form has been completed and sent to the IPPC regarding the multiple complaints referred to the PSD by the IPCC, not being recorded (ignored) by the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary Professional Standards Department. Further adding to the abuse of the gay victims of police abuse by the (in our experience) obtuse, arrogant & contemptuous way in which complaints made by gay persons are repeatedly & systematically dismissively handled by Devon & Cornwall constabulary, under the command of Chief Constable Stephen Otter.

I refer to your email dated 6th July 2009 requesting that Devon and Cornwall Constabulary review its response to the provision of information, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, relating to your request .

I can advise that, following the consideration of the request by an independent reviewer it has been found that the original notification by the Freedom of Information Unit, that the request was vexatious was correct. Therefore no disclosure will be made by the Constabulary and this notification should be considered a refusal.

In line with the decision made relating to your appeal, I must advise you that under Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner to review the application and the Constabulary’s response. The address of the Information Commissioner is;
The Office of the Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF;
Tel: 01625 545745
Fax: 01625 524510
e.mail: [email address]